Wheatear species. (1 Viewer)

Hi all

Just looking on birdguides & found this unusual looking wheatear.


http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?rty=0&r=0&v=0&off=324010

What do people think it is?B

Steve.

stevo said:

Hi all

Just looking on birdguides & found this unusual looking wheatear.


http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?rty=0&r=0&v=0&off=324010

What do people think it is?B

Steve.

Click to expand...

It's a desert wheatear; there is a whole thread on it somewhere here.

cheers, alan

It's here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=214913

StuartReeves said:

It's here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=214913

Click to expand...

Sorry didn`t realise whoops.

Steve.B

Just received more photographs of this bird and was asked to comment, so for what it is worth (if anything) I reproduce my reply here and look forward to any comments:

Ummm, intrigue is the name of the game here. Actually the photos are better and make life a 'little' easier. The flight photo shows a clear inverted 'T' shape and this would be entirely absent to extremely rare in Desert Wheatear, so this is helpful. Also the profile photos 1 and 2 show a clear view of size, particularly to leg and toe size i.e. very short (chat like) tarsi and short toe length, quite different from the angles shown on photos sent before and from Desert Wheatear. Did the bird hop around a lot as opposed to running and wag the tail (downward and rising slowly)? Looking at the coloration of mantle and breast then it is not typical of either O.x.xanthoprymna or O.x.chrysopygia, but they do interbreed where their ranges overlap (North-western Iran) and this individual could well be a hybrid of these two races. Also I still believe this individual to be an immature and most likely female (based on new photos), so again this adds to the id difficulties as contrary to wide-held belief the immature varies from adult females i.e. lack of black extending from bill to eye etc. If I were put into a corner and asked to say which species it is, then I would come down in favour of Red-tailed Wheatear!

Bit of a headache, but I'll certainly spend more and more time sifting through old notes and photos (mostly of birds in the hand) to see if I am overlooking something here!!!

Peter